Flint, Julie, and Alex de Waal. Darfur: A New History of a Long War. London: Zed, 2008.
This publication was very useful for our group due to the incredibly comprehensive nature of the work and its direct relativity to our project. While we are not focusing on Darfur and have at times even avoided that specific conflict in lieu of providing a wider analysis of Sudanese conflict, the origins of violence in Darfur are inextricable from those of violence in Sudan in general, a fact that is repeatedly invoked throughout Darfur. The book essentially serves as a breakdown of the many factors of the conflict in Sudan, from key players and events to the provision of an actual chronology. It has subsequently been very useful in the crafting of our timeline and more general overview of the Sudanese conflict.
Darfur: A New History of a Long War
Darfur provides a comprehensive look into various aspects of the conflict in Darfur, spanning from the origins to contemporary circumstances with a look to the future. In analysis of the region of Darfur, this invaluable resource also explores factors that are inextricable from the greater decades-old conflict in Sudan. This tightly-crafted work is split into sections describing parts of the Darfur and Sudanese conflict integral to understanding violence including exploration of the ethnic and tribal diversity of the people of Sudan, the Sudanese government’s historic marginalization of the peripheries outside of Khartoum, the origins of the Arab Janjawiid and the government’s complicity, the rebels, the civil war in Darfur itself and the methods of violence utilized, international reaction to the Darfur situation, the peace talks between rebels and Khartoum, and the continued violence and unsteady future of the region (also providing a chronology of the progression of Sudan with an emphasis on events related specifically to Darfur). While providing deep and well-cited analysis of relatively minute factual details of the various aspects of this conflict, de Waal and Flint engage the larger systems at work that have led to the extreme violence in the Sudan (such as government sponsored Arab-supremacy, marginalization of peripheries, and the militarization of politics). Darfur attempts to impart a well-researched and non-alarmist perspective of the conflict without explicitly involving the opinions of the authors, although some of de Waal’s fundamental beliefs related to Sudan such as his emphasis of finding an internally political and non-interventionist approach are implied.